The 66 -year -old man is the last Cardinal Philippin, having been appointed only by Pope Francis in December of last year.
He was appointed bishop of Kalookan by Pope Benoît XVI in October 2015.
Cardinal David is known for his charitable work for surviving parents of the death of the bloody “war against drugs” under the former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who is currently detained in an international criminal court in Hague on accusations of crimes against humanity for deadly drug crampons.
At the height of Mr. Duterte's anti-drug campaign, Bishop David of the Roman Catholic diocese of Kalookan, in the north of the Manila metro, took custody of the witnesses of the drug war, whose life was constant at the time.
The region of the capital of the Philippines of Metro Manila has 16 cities and a municipality. The diocese of Cardinal David covers Malabon City, Navotas City and the southern part of the city of Calocan – all areas with a higher density of disadvantaged communities with war on drugs.
While helping the families of the victims of the drug war, Cardinal David received death threats.
It was also “on marking”, a term referring to the way in which the Philippin defenders are often unduly qualified as communist terrorists for their civic action. Likewise, Pope Francis had been marked by his criticism.
Cardinal David often recalled how Pope Francis encouraged him to use what the pontiff called divine humor to deal with death threats.
The late Pope also recalled during their meeting not to let the title “his eminence” go to his head.
After the death of Pope Francis, Cardinal David underlined the role of the deceased pontiff as a bridges builder.
He recalled how late fire called the Filipino migrants “passenger of the faith”.
The Philippines diaspora includes more than 10 million Philippins worldwide.
He also remembered the way the late pontiff taught in the world that the heart of the gospel beats the most strongly where poverty and resident exclusion.
